Deeplinks Blog posts about Transparency

One year ago today, WikiLeaks started publishing a trove of over 250,000 leaked U.S. State Department cables, which have since formed the basis of reporting for newspapers around the globe. The publication has given the public a window into the inner workings of government at an unprecedented scale, and in the process, has transformed journalism in the digital age.

An order from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has revealed the FBI lied to the court about the existence of records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), taking the position that FOIA allows it to withhold information from the court whenever it thinks this is in the interest of national security. Using the strongest possible language, the court disagreed: “The Government cannot, under any circumstance, affirmatively mislead the Court.”Islamic Shura Council of S. Cal. v. FBI (“Shura Council I”), No. 07-1088, 3 (C.D. Cal. April 27, 2011) (emphasis added).

On October 27th, board members of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) held a public meeting to discuss the draft of their new cell phone shutdown policy. EFF attended the meeting and presented our recommendations, which would ensure that the final policy complied with the First Amendment and mandated transparency.Encouragingly, the members pledged to adopt many of EFF’s proposed changes.

This summer, decision-makers at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) garnered considerable criticism -- not to mention the ire of Anonymous and days of protests -- after they chose to shut down cell phone access to four BART stations in downtown San Francisco based on rumors of an upcoming protest. Now BART’s Board Directors has drafted a Cell Phone Interruption Policy, which they will consider at an upcoming meeting on October 27th.

EFF applauds the BART for taking the time to develop a policy whose intent is to clarify the circumstances under which BART may shut down cell phone communications, but the proposed policy, which was made public last week, raises some profound concerns about procedure and accountability that we believe should be directly addressed.